The Korea Transport Institute (KOTI) and iRAP have signed a Centre of Excellence agreement, which will support efforts in the development of road infrastructure safety in Korea as well as in the international community.

Speaking at a special seminar, KOTI Pesident, Gyenchul Kim, said: “To achieve high performance on road safety, all road safety factors including road users, vehicles, and road infrastructure should be safer than now. We are showing a high level of seat belt usage compared to 20 years ago. We are also making vehicles which compete with the other safer cars around the globe. Now is the time to make road infrastructure safer in the world.”

KOTI joins four other iRAP Centres of Excellence: ARRB Group, the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS), TRL, MRIGLobal and the Instituto Mexicano del Transporte.

RMTC, the lead agency for road traffic management in South Africa, has established the South African Road Assessment Program (SARAP) to help prevent the more than 14,000 road deaths that occur each year in the country.

Speaking at a major launch event, acting CEO, Collins Letsoalo  said the South Africa “free of high risk roads” initiative will include:

• Assessment and performance tracking on 36,000km of road where over 50% of fatalities in South Africa occur.
• Targeted investment in proven high return treatments across the country.
• The elimination of one and two star roads by 2020.

The initiative will draw on the co-operation and dedicated support of stakeholders such as the Department of Transport, Ministry of Finance, SANRAL, SARF, Road Accident Fund, SALGA, South African Police Service, Universities and CSIR. 

SARAP will also involve capacity building, evaluations, communications and employment generation efforts.

‘Designing safer roads for all’ was the theme of a week-long road engineering safety training course held in Bangalore, India.

Participants from across India and nearby countries had the opportunity to learn about Star Rating road designs, crash investigations, road safety audits, black spot management, engineering treatments for run-off, head-on and intersection crashes, and designing for vulnerable road users and mixed traffic. 

The course was closely linked with iRAP assessments, which now cover some 6,500km of roads in seven Indian States. More than 100 engineers have participated in iRAP-specific training since 2010. 

Importantly, investments to improve many of the roads assessed with iRAP tools have been locked into World Bank-financed projects, estimated to be worth more than USD 3.5 billion. Designs for almost 30% of the roads assessed have already been Star Rated, helping to ensure that safety is built-in to the plans prior to construction.

The course culminated in a site visit to the Mysore safe demonstration corridor which will soon be upgraded. Visit our Flickr page to see photos of the visit.

The training course was an initiative of the GRSF and provided as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies global road safety program.

In the first report of its kind, AMZS have brought together results from all RAP protocols for roads in Slovenia.

Risk Mapping results on 6,500km of the road network for the period 2006-2011 showed that motorways and expressways are the safest road type, with an average fatal and serious crash rate 6 times lower than main roads and 8 times lower than regional roads. Just 1% of the network fell into the higher risk categories compared to 23% of main roads and 31% of regional roads. Performance tracking over time showed a significant improvement in the proportion of the network rated higher risk compared to 2006-2008.

The report includes results from pilot road inspections covering 270km. Over 90% of the expressway routes achieved a 4-star rating, with a lack of paved shoulders identified as a key roadside hazard. Main road sections scored much lower, with the majority rated as 1- or 2-stars. Narrow driving lanes, steep embankments and poor junction layout were identified as problem areas.

A detailed Safer Roads Investment Plan on the main road from Ljubljana Kocevje-Petrina showed that improving intersection layout, widening lanes and adding paved shoulders and roadside barriers on just 32km of road would require investment of €2 million and would yield a €16 million return over 20 years, equating to a benefit cost ratio of 7.5.

The full report can be downloaded from: http://eurorap.org/media/182412/EuroRAP_SLO_2012_Eng.zip

RACC have published EuroRAP mapping showing national road sections with the highest crash costs.

The research shows that up to 20% of the network (4,700km) bears crash costs over €100,000 per kilometre, while 5% of the network (1,296km) had crash costs greater than €200,000 per kilometre. The study found that just eight roads account for half of the highest cost per kilometre.

The report comes at time of considerable budgetary constraint in Spain, and it is argued that targeted investment on road sections with the highest crash costs will save lives and money.  

Currently, while the average crash cost per km on the national road network stands at €64, investment in road maintenance stands at just €38 per km.

By applying to become an IRF Fellow, you could follow in the footsteps of passionate road safety supporter and member of the ChinaRAP team, Wu Lingtao.

The IRF Fellowship Program enabled Lingtao take up study at Texas A&M University in the United States, meet some of the best international students in the country and network with leaders of the transportation industry.

The International Road Educational Foundation is now accepting nominations for the IRF Fellowship Program – Class of 2015 (starting fall semester, 2014).

The program provides a one-time graduate level scholarship to young professionals from developing countries who have strong academic backgrounds, professional qualifications, leadership potential, and a commitment to return to their respective home countries after graduation.

For more information on how to apply, visit: www.irfnews.org/fellowships.

To coincide with the first major update of the iRAP methodology since it was pilot-tested in four countries in 2006, we have published a new series of fact sheets.

The 28 fact sheets describe the risk factors (or crash modification factors) used in the models for attributes such as lane width and sidewalk (footpath) provision, and include discussion on key issues and references to published literature. The fact sheets are available at irap.org and on the Road Safety Toolkit.

We are also in the process of updating the existing methodology documents, addressing topics such as the way in which crash initiation modes are handled in the models and how the Star Rating thresholds are set. The documents will be free to download when they’re ready. 

In the meantime, if you have any questions about the iRAP methodology, please contact us. We will be happy to answer your questions.

During a recent webinar the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety explained how usRAP is transitioning from pilot projects to become an operational program. Having demonstrated through a three-phase pilot period how it can complement existing safety management programs in...